A foot care apparatus with a care or treatment attachment which can be placed onto a driving shaft turned rotatably by a motor is known from DE 295 02 702 U1. It is also known to have foot care apparatus as part of a foot tub, divided by a center ridge into two sub areas. Each sub area of the foot tub serves for receiving one foot. The sub areas can have inserts resting on the tub bottom to a massage of the foot soles. The ridge dividing the foot tub forms at the under side a hollow volume, in which is contained an electromotor and further electric/electronic elements required for operating the foot care apparatus. The electromotor drives a driving shaft such that it rotates, which shaft is carried through the upper side of the ridge and supports at its upper termination a crosspiece as a coupling piece. This crosspiece serves as the attachment place for a care or treatment attachment, such that it is torsion-tight, onto the coupling piece of the driving shaft.
During operation of the electromotor the entire attachment is set into rotation according to the turning movement of the driving shaft. As various attachments are employed the user can move the foot to use the attachment on different areas of the foot. One type of attachment is one with several rollers supported movably such that during operation of such a roller through the turning movement of the attachment and the movable support of the rollers in the attachment the user can massage their foot. Other attachments known in the art is pumice stones for abrading calluses, brushes or the like, depending on the purpose to be served with such care or treatment attachments.
Conventionally such a foot care device is also equipped with a device for generating vibrations, in order to set into vibration the inserts in the tub sections in order to give an overall massage the soles of the feet. Generally the electromotor is driven independently of the vibration generation device and, in contrast to such foot care apparatus in which attachments are placed onto a vibration head covering the vibration generator, permits a considerably more specific care or treatment of individual foot regions, in particular also as it relates to treatment intensity. The known care or treatment attachments thus with their different embodiments have a rotary effect onto the particular desired foot region.
Even if, in principle, with such a known foot care apparatus satisfactory care or treatment results can be attained, it would be desirable if such care or treatment attachments were also available which have a different functionality.
Building on this discussed prior art, the invention therefore addresses the problem of providing an above-described care or treatment attachment for a foot care apparatus, whose functionality is fundamentally increased compared to the known ones.
The present invention has one or more attachments which have housing which is secured in position on a foot care apparatus. This means that the driving movement transmitted from the driving shaft of the electromotor onto the coupling piece does not move the housing. Rotatably mounted in the housing is coupling piece which moves corresponding to the driving movement of the driving shaft of the foot care apparatus. The coupling piece drives at the driven side a power converter for the conversion of the driving movement into a movement differing in one of its properties from the driving movement and powers one or several movable care or treatment elements driven by the power converter.
In contrast to the known prior art, in the present inventions the entire attachment is not moved. The housing is secured in position on the foot care apparatus such that the housing of the attachment is decoupled from the driving movement of the foot care apparatus. This opens the capability of placing a power converter in the housing, which can then convert the driving movement of the driving shaft into a number of different types of movement so that several specific care or treatment elements can be used.
The driving movement of the driving shaft, in principle, can be developed such that it is alternating translational or also rotational. The conversion by the power converter of a rotational turning movement of the driving shaft and the coupling piece of the attachment can serve for driving a drum supported horizontally with its rotational axis. The power converter can also be developed as an eccentric, through which a plate is set into vibration, wherein the vibration plane can extend perpendicularly to the rotational axis of the driving shaft. The vibration movement can have a rotational component or also be developed such that it is alternatingly translational. Apart from numerous other elements, as the power converter can also serve a cam disk with one or several positional cogs through which several massage push rods supported in the housing such that they are vertically movable, can be moved alternately and successively.
If a rotational turning movement of the driving shaft is provided, the housing of the attachment can, for example, be held torsion-tight by bars or pins projecting downwardly, which engage corresponding cutouts of the foot care apparatus.